b) SWITCH – join the Big Switch, and get both renewable electricity for your home or church at low cost, and a major reduction in your carbon footprint. If we all do it, it will greatly add to the demand for non-polluting power – and where’s there’s demand, supply will always follow!

I got this info’ from Christian Aid’s website and you can get further details there, but I think it’s just ‘common-or-garden’ electricity! ☺ Go to:www.bigchurchswitch.org.uk/about

c) TWIN – Twin your toilet! Tamsin Greig says, “I twinned my toilet because it’s a fun and simple way to tackle the scandalous lack of decent loos and basic sanitation all over the world. Twin your toilet today.”
2.3 billion people lack adequate sanitation – 1 in 3 of the world’s population. Diarrhoea caused by inadequate sanitation are now reckoned to be the biggest killer of children in Africa.

But it’s not just about illness and death – think of the indignity of it – and being stalked by fear on a nightly basis. “Without a toilet at home, women and girls have to wait until dark to relieve themselves outside, risking attack”, says one, and she describes “the agonies of women having to wait until dark, even if they have diarrhoea”.

So please consider ‘twinning’ each of your toilets with ‘Toilet Twinning’, or twin the toilet of a family member or friend as a gift. Go towww.toilettwinning.org – £60 per toilet twinned. You get a nice little framed picture of the toilet in Ethiopia, Burundi, etc., to hang on your toilet wall – Tamsin said it’s fun!

This is Fairtrade Fortnight and a great opportunity to hear a first-hand account, by Colombian Fairtrade coffee co-operative worker, Luz Marina Garcia Ruiz, of how coffee farming works and the impact Fairtrade has on farmers’ lives, as well as having your questions answered.

Concerned about the impacts of climate change on the poorest and most
vulnerable people on earth? On the world your children and grandchildren
will inherit? On the rich and wonderful diversity of life on earth?

I’m sure you are, so I commend this to you!

With every good wish, David

——————-

Feature-length film, entitled “This Changes Everything”, inspired by Naomi
Klein’s international best-seller, and followed by discussion;

This film seeks to personalise the debate on climate change, painting an
intimate portrait of deeply affected communities across the world, and
demonstrating the personal, political and economic struggles interwoven with
tackling climate change in an age of austerity. This unsettling film is both
provocative and compelling, empowering its audience through a call to
action.

“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings…Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.”
Nelson Mandela, 2005